Ryan J. Downey's Blog
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Comic-Con Ruled
I interviewed Gerard from My Chem, Sam Raimi, Seth Rogan, Ali Larter, Gwenyth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, Terence Howard, Robert "Freddy Krueger" England, Milla Jovovich and a bunch of people I'm sure I'm forgetting. I saw Sgt. Slaughter signing autographs at the G.I. Joe booth, missed out on the Comic-Con exclusive Destro figure, more later!
Monday, July 23, 2007
How to Enjoy Life with a PDA
Ignore Most Emails (Get on the Phone!)
Take a break
Do not text while driving
Never check your messages within an hour of bedtime
Take back your life (and give life unto others)
But don't be an idiot
- Thanks, GQ magazine
Take a break
Do not text while driving
Never check your messages within an hour of bedtime
Take back your life (and give life unto others)
But don't be an idiot
- Thanks, GQ magazine
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Hardball Liner Notes
Spending a lot of time today cleaning out a lot of personal belongings -- throwing away pictures, notebooks, folders dating back to high school - and I came across some journals from the early 90s and a few from the mid-90s. Amazing stuff. Quite the trip down memory lane, with even just a cursory glance through them. I'd only journal in fits and starts, but when I was doing it, I'd keep up on it regularly for a short while.
ANYWAY, what I'm looking at now (and about to transcribe) I wrote in high school - like literally, in class - my senior year in 1992. It was intended to be liner notes for a Hardball anthology cassette that never was.
What's funny is elsewhere, I've found "liner notes" for a Hardball CD discography Life Sentence Records in Europe was supposed to do in 1993, which also never came out (despite Life Sentence sending me $500 to compile the tracks, and me sending him a DAT). I had even talked to Tony Reitz (vegan straight edge warrior at the time) about touring Europe.
Check this out. Yeah, it's embarrassing. I have left all of the punctuation exact, except filling in band names where I had left that blank (I think I planned on cutting and pasting their logos!). And yes, this is written in blue ball point pen on looseleaf notebook paper. No idea why it's in the third person. It's also in all caps, but I'll spare anyone reading this that.
I've explained a few things in brackets [like this].
MARCH 1990
Ryan + John, ex Clear Sight, want to form a "hard edge band." So they find Keith, drummer, who quits smoking + joins them. They ask Matt to join. He's not a great bass player but he was the only other S.E. kid in town. Our third practice was taped.
MAY 1990
First show, Carmel, IN, at an apartements club house, with Split Lip and Decrepit. There's a tape of this somewhere. How embarrassing (for all of us!). Second show at Carmel Lion's Club with Split Lip and others. Ryan fell through the stage. Straight edge kids start popping up. This one's on video!
Third show at Beech Grove V.F.W., IN, with the Vampire Lezbos. John made a million dollars. Keith sold our demo. A record deal with Progression Records was in the bag. The people that came to see Dead Dizney thought Ryan was going to rap by the way he was dressed. More straight edge kids popped up.
JUNE 1990
Fourth show, with With Authority and Birdshit of Alcatraz [the band was actually called Birdmen of Alcatraz, and that was their first show, they got better, and got a much cooler singer later] who were an arrogantly two hrs. late. Matt + Ryan lost a ton of $. W. Auth. got mad at Ryan because he didn't pay them. The local S.E. kids hated us because of all the violent people that came to see Integrity. Two months later they all palled around with Integrity. Hmph. Go figure. Rob Endpoint hated Ryan because he overheard him talking shit. Sorry. Brian Progression dished out $200 for us to record One on One. "Faced With Guilt" was recorded earlier for his "By All Means" comp. 7". We never got any.
JULY 1990
5th show, Chicago, IL with Face Value + Short Cut. "Club Blitz" [Tony Victory's basement!] hated us. We were "too hateful," they said; this from the "Victory Demolition Mob." Rumor has it Erba + Tony Vic. pulled the power on us. If they did they never admitted it. Real positive. [Erba would later sing backups on one of the versions of our 7"; Tony Victory and I are friends to this day, I managed a band on Victory just two years ago, and we laughed about old times. I remember at that show I was dressed up like Mike Muir; Tony stuck $20 in my front shirt pocket - yes, the shirt had the top button buttoned only - and said, 'Here you go, holmes!'].
AUGUST 1990
6th show, Louisville, KY Rehash [they were called Relapse, this is my 1992 brand of "humor"] from Mich didn't show. They hated us because Brian Progression gave us more attention. And 'cause we stole Integrity's sound. They went off on us in some 'zine + we got to see our name in print - Yahoo! [Weird I totally invented the name of that company]. A local zine said Ryan had an attitude but we were pretty good. A fair assessment. Endpoint heard Split Lip's demo and started giving them all the good shows. Lousiville hated us, because Dead Dizney's old singer made fun of their scene + our drummer plays like a geek. We recorded "One on One" again [there were three or maybe four recording sessions for the 7" in total]. 7th show in Carmel at Lion's Club with ____ [not sure which band's logo I intended to fill in later]. A homeless benefit. Patched things up with the now tattooed + shaved head S.E. kids, but things were never the same. Ad for 7" in Maximum Rock N' Roll.
SEPTEMBER 1990
Kicked Matt out but didn't tell him yet. Stop practicing.
OCTOBER 1990
Recorded "One on One" again w/out Matt. John played bass.
NOVEMBER 1990
8th show, IN. with some Christian bands. Matts last show. Someone recorded it. Whoever ran the video forgot to turn it on 'till our last song. We sounded awful.
DECEMBER, JANUARY, FEBRUARY [1991]
Stop practicing and playing shows. John + Keith Steele are in Dead Dizney. Do some interviews. 7" never comes out.
MARCH 1991
Toad joins on bass. Ryan + Keith go Hardline. Some guy in Chicago offers to do our 7". He never does, either. Make flyers to try + spark new interest. There is none. Hardball is dead. Play one song in Lafeyette, IN. with Matt on bass and Split Lippers on other stuff [Charie Walker on drums, Clay Snyder on guitar, we did "Faced With Guilt," and then we tried launching into Integrity's "Live it Down" with Damien Sullivan on bass, but the kids from Advance cut the power on us for playing more than one song. I think they were mad that people knew our lyrics and were moshing.]
APRIL, MAY, JUNE 1991
Stop practicing. John makes video for a song in his TV productions class. Keith is no longer Hardline, or even straight edge. New 7" is recorded for Rob R-Rock (is that "R" Rock or "Ruh-Rock"?).
JULY, AUGUST 1991
Play Hardline Gathering in Memphis, TN. with Dead Dizney drummer. On video and audio. Keith unofficially quits. Rob carries on tradition of ripping us off.
SEPTEMBER 1991
Final show, Cafe Amsterdam, IN. w/ Dead Dizney. All of the S.E. kids are out of town except Matt [Split Lip was opening for Shelter in St. Louis]. Pretty sad when some kid asked us what we are called. Some "grand finale." Rumor has it our 7" is out. Who knows? We don't!
JUNE 1992
Ryan + John are both Hardline. Our 7" is out but we never got any. Someone else is putting it out again. T-shirts are out, too. Ryan decides to release this tape to make money for Hardline activities. HA HA SUCKERS! [that part is in bold]
Final Show:
Yikes.
ANYWAY, what I'm looking at now (and about to transcribe) I wrote in high school - like literally, in class - my senior year in 1992. It was intended to be liner notes for a Hardball anthology cassette that never was.
What's funny is elsewhere, I've found "liner notes" for a Hardball CD discography Life Sentence Records in Europe was supposed to do in 1993, which also never came out (despite Life Sentence sending me $500 to compile the tracks, and me sending him a DAT). I had even talked to Tony Reitz (vegan straight edge warrior at the time) about touring Europe.
Check this out. Yeah, it's embarrassing. I have left all of the punctuation exact, except filling in band names where I had left that blank (I think I planned on cutting and pasting their logos!). And yes, this is written in blue ball point pen on looseleaf notebook paper. No idea why it's in the third person. It's also in all caps, but I'll spare anyone reading this that.
I've explained a few things in brackets [like this].
MARCH 1990
Ryan + John, ex Clear Sight, want to form a "hard edge band." So they find Keith, drummer, who quits smoking + joins them. They ask Matt to join. He's not a great bass player but he was the only other S.E. kid in town. Our third practice was taped.
MAY 1990
First show, Carmel, IN, at an apartements club house, with Split Lip and Decrepit. There's a tape of this somewhere. How embarrassing (for all of us!). Second show at Carmel Lion's Club with Split Lip and others. Ryan fell through the stage. Straight edge kids start popping up. This one's on video!
Third show at Beech Grove V.F.W., IN, with the Vampire Lezbos. John made a million dollars. Keith sold our demo. A record deal with Progression Records was in the bag. The people that came to see Dead Dizney thought Ryan was going to rap by the way he was dressed. More straight edge kids popped up.
JUNE 1990
Fourth show, with With Authority and Birdshit of Alcatraz [the band was actually called Birdmen of Alcatraz, and that was their first show, they got better, and got a much cooler singer later] who were an arrogantly two hrs. late. Matt + Ryan lost a ton of $. W. Auth. got mad at Ryan because he didn't pay them. The local S.E. kids hated us because of all the violent people that came to see Integrity. Two months later they all palled around with Integrity. Hmph. Go figure. Rob Endpoint hated Ryan because he overheard him talking shit. Sorry. Brian Progression dished out $200 for us to record One on One. "Faced With Guilt" was recorded earlier for his "By All Means" comp. 7". We never got any.
JULY 1990
5th show, Chicago, IL with Face Value + Short Cut. "Club Blitz" [Tony Victory's basement!] hated us. We were "too hateful," they said; this from the "Victory Demolition Mob." Rumor has it Erba + Tony Vic. pulled the power on us. If they did they never admitted it. Real positive. [Erba would later sing backups on one of the versions of our 7"; Tony Victory and I are friends to this day, I managed a band on Victory just two years ago, and we laughed about old times. I remember at that show I was dressed up like Mike Muir; Tony stuck $20 in my front shirt pocket - yes, the shirt had the top button buttoned only - and said, 'Here you go, holmes!'].
AUGUST 1990
6th show, Louisville, KY Rehash [they were called Relapse, this is my 1992 brand of "humor"] from Mich didn't show. They hated us because Brian Progression gave us more attention. And 'cause we stole Integrity's sound. They went off on us in some 'zine + we got to see our name in print - Yahoo! [Weird I totally invented the name of that company]. A local zine said Ryan had an attitude but we were pretty good. A fair assessment. Endpoint heard Split Lip's demo and started giving them all the good shows. Lousiville hated us, because Dead Dizney's old singer made fun of their scene + our drummer plays like a geek. We recorded "One on One" again [there were three or maybe four recording sessions for the 7" in total]. 7th show in Carmel at Lion's Club with ____ [not sure which band's logo I intended to fill in later]. A homeless benefit. Patched things up with the now tattooed + shaved head S.E. kids, but things were never the same. Ad for 7" in Maximum Rock N' Roll.
SEPTEMBER 1990
Kicked Matt out but didn't tell him yet. Stop practicing.
OCTOBER 1990
Recorded "One on One" again w/out Matt. John played bass.
NOVEMBER 1990
8th show, IN. with some Christian bands. Matts last show. Someone recorded it. Whoever ran the video forgot to turn it on 'till our last song. We sounded awful.
DECEMBER, JANUARY, FEBRUARY [1991]
Stop practicing and playing shows. John + Keith Steele are in Dead Dizney. Do some interviews. 7" never comes out.
MARCH 1991
Toad joins on bass. Ryan + Keith go Hardline. Some guy in Chicago offers to do our 7". He never does, either. Make flyers to try + spark new interest. There is none. Hardball is dead. Play one song in Lafeyette, IN. with Matt on bass and Split Lippers on other stuff [Charie Walker on drums, Clay Snyder on guitar, we did "Faced With Guilt," and then we tried launching into Integrity's "Live it Down" with Damien Sullivan on bass, but the kids from Advance cut the power on us for playing more than one song. I think they were mad that people knew our lyrics and were moshing.]
APRIL, MAY, JUNE 1991
Stop practicing. John makes video for a song in his TV productions class. Keith is no longer Hardline, or even straight edge. New 7" is recorded for Rob R-Rock (is that "R" Rock or "Ruh-Rock"?).
JULY, AUGUST 1991
Play Hardline Gathering in Memphis, TN. with Dead Dizney drummer. On video and audio. Keith unofficially quits. Rob carries on tradition of ripping us off.
SEPTEMBER 1991
Final show, Cafe Amsterdam, IN. w/ Dead Dizney. All of the S.E. kids are out of town except Matt [Split Lip was opening for Shelter in St. Louis]. Pretty sad when some kid asked us what we are called. Some "grand finale." Rumor has it our 7" is out. Who knows? We don't!
JUNE 1992
Ryan + John are both Hardline. Our 7" is out but we never got any. Someone else is putting it out again. T-shirts are out, too. Ryan decides to release this tape to make money for Hardline activities. HA HA SUCKERS! [that part is in bold]
Final Show:
Yikes.
Tammy Faye Messner 1942-2007
I just received the following message from Revolution Church:
After fighting cancer for eleven years, my mother passed away on July 20 at 4AM. She had a very peaceful death and is no longer in pain. To grant her wish she was cremated today and her ashes were buried at a private ceremony. The service was performed by my good friend Randy McCain of Open Door Community Church in Sherwood, AR.
Thank you to everyone for their prayers and support over the years - it has helped me more than you will ever know. Please continue to pray for her husband Roe as well as the rest of my family.
A public ceremony is currently being planned - an update will be sent once the details are finalized along with where to send flowers. I ask that all press would please allow me to grieve privately at this time. Thank you.
Jay Bakker
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
Awesome
I just signed the lease for new office space ON ELM STREET ON FRIDAY THE 13th. I wish I had those pictures of me and Freddy from the "Freddy Vs. Jason" set, but alas, they are lost.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Bono & Africa
A close friend forwarded me an article entitled "Africans To Bono: For God's Sake, Please Stop!"
Interesting, but not truthful.
In its opening salvo, it accuses the recent Africa-centered Vanity Fair issue guest edited by Bono of having "a conspicuous absence of Africans." That, right off the bat, is completely not true. I have that issue, and read most of it.
While Vanity Fair and Bono did (in my opinion wisely) chose to use a army of celebrities on multiple newsstand covers to get attention on Africa (as Brad Pitt says, the spotlight follows him, why not shine it somewhere that needs it?), I read about SO MANY Africans inside the magazine's pages, who they are, what they are doing, and read in their own words. Africans are all over that issue, on nearly every page, from entrepreneurs to artists, doctors, priests, you name it.
I recall in particular reading about a Catholic priest who is HIV positive who announced it publicly twenty minutes after being tested despite the risk of being stoned to death by his followers. An AFRICAN, in his own words.
Also of note: Vanity Fair is quite "liberal" in tone, however, Bono insisted they include George W. on the cover, and Condi Rice, as one positive thing his administration actually HAS done is more for Africa than any President.
The article's next (and central point) addresses the idea that there is "too much aid" going to Africa, that it's poorly distributed, misses the point, the government steals it, whathaveyou. This is all TRUE but what they neglect to mention, and is ALSO TRUE, is that Bono's DATA organization IS NOT LIKE LIVE AID.
Education, AIDS prevention, schools, debt relief, that's the type of work they do, they don't throw money at the problem as the intellectual and philanthropical elite did well-intentioned but erroneously in the 1980s.
The article also goes on to point out that Africa is a complex continent, more than a place of tragedy that needs saving, but also a place of diversity and a wealth of opportunity. THIS IS THE EXACT THEME OF THE VANITY FAIR AFRICA ISSUE! That's what the entire magazine is about! Whoever wrote this didn't read it.
It reminds me of all the "reports" about Live Earth pointing out that Madonna flies on private planes and that people would be using a lot of beverage containers at the concert. It's fault-finding designed to undermine and undo great undertakings that have 1,000x more impact than arm-chair grenade throwing at activists who undoubtedly are improving our world.
Interesting, but not truthful.
In its opening salvo, it accuses the recent Africa-centered Vanity Fair issue guest edited by Bono of having "a conspicuous absence of Africans." That, right off the bat, is completely not true. I have that issue, and read most of it.
While Vanity Fair and Bono did (in my opinion wisely) chose to use a army of celebrities on multiple newsstand covers to get attention on Africa (as Brad Pitt says, the spotlight follows him, why not shine it somewhere that needs it?), I read about SO MANY Africans inside the magazine's pages, who they are, what they are doing, and read in their own words. Africans are all over that issue, on nearly every page, from entrepreneurs to artists, doctors, priests, you name it.
I recall in particular reading about a Catholic priest who is HIV positive who announced it publicly twenty minutes after being tested despite the risk of being stoned to death by his followers. An AFRICAN, in his own words.
Also of note: Vanity Fair is quite "liberal" in tone, however, Bono insisted they include George W. on the cover, and Condi Rice, as one positive thing his administration actually HAS done is more for Africa than any President.
The article's next (and central point) addresses the idea that there is "too much aid" going to Africa, that it's poorly distributed, misses the point, the government steals it, whathaveyou. This is all TRUE but what they neglect to mention, and is ALSO TRUE, is that Bono's DATA organization IS NOT LIKE LIVE AID.
Education, AIDS prevention, schools, debt relief, that's the type of work they do, they don't throw money at the problem as the intellectual and philanthropical elite did well-intentioned but erroneously in the 1980s.
The article also goes on to point out that Africa is a complex continent, more than a place of tragedy that needs saving, but also a place of diversity and a wealth of opportunity. THIS IS THE EXACT THEME OF THE VANITY FAIR AFRICA ISSUE! That's what the entire magazine is about! Whoever wrote this didn't read it.
It reminds me of all the "reports" about Live Earth pointing out that Madonna flies on private planes and that people would be using a lot of beverage containers at the concert. It's fault-finding designed to undermine and undo great undertakings that have 1,000x more impact than arm-chair grenade throwing at activists who undoubtedly are improving our world.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
I Love You Matt Mentley...
My new Twitter was made partially with you in mind. And I'm going to blog more. I leave on Thursday to visit Demon Hunter in the studio, last week was a CRAZY busy week with Tiger Army visiting Hot Topic's corporate HQ and playing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and both Throwdown and Tiger Army starting the Warped Tour, not to mention a few things going on with Bleeding Through for their summer tour with Marilyn Manson and Slayer, trying to get a new Telecast album going, getting started on the Oral History of Coalesce for Alternative Press, handful of production projects, and more. Feeling good though, life is wonderful, feeling blessed, God is great. More to come! (Seriously Mentley).
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